Vineyard: Nakai

AVA: Russian River Valley

Farming: Organic, Dry Farmed

Harvest Date: 26 August 2025

Bottling Date: 23 February 2026

Alc: 11%

Cases: 75

My third time making an individual wine out of Aki Nakai’s Muscat Vert, and this wine continues to impress me.  Like in Redwood Valley, Russian River Valley saw consistently warm weather through most of the harvest season, with a small rain event in early September.  Because Muscat Vert ripens faster than Colombard, we chose to pick the fruit before the weather cooled, so the Muscat Vert came in 2 weeks earlier than the Colombard.

The Muscat Vert was pressed directly, settled overnight, and racked off gross lees to stainless steel for fermentation.  Once fermentation finished, the wine was placed into a combination of stainless steel and neutral oak barrels to age for 5 months before being racked together for bottling in late February.

Aki calls this fruit Muscat Vert, so I feel it’s right to put this variety on the label.  However, I am unsure as to whether or not it is truly a Muscat, as it lacks the distinctive aromatics I normally associate with the variety.  At the same time, it is certainly more aromatic than Colombard or Chardonnay or Chenin, an aspect which I believe is beautifully exemplified in this direct to press expression of the grape.  Whatever the variety is, it is unique among the other wines I produce, and I am very happy to be able to continue to make a single varietal wine from it.

Indigenous yeast fermentation. SO2: 30 ppm total.  No other additions, unfined and unfiltered.

‘the sun egg’ is a book by Swedish author Elsa Beskow, about an elf who finds an orange in the woods.  One of my favorite stories as a child.